Train Every Day

The fire service has a tendency to make even the mostobvious things very difficult. Training is a great example as there are some individuals as well asentire departments who will make more effort to get out of training than itactually takes to complete the training. There are even stories of individuals refusing to complete departmenttraining. The importance oftraining is increasing as the fire service evolves; more response capabilities,higher community expectations, a decrease in the level of experience, and anincrease in the number of “other” calls than fires.

Training is the simplest and most necessary things thatmembers of the fire service should be doing every day (I can also argueprevention and education but those are conversations for another day). Regardlessof what type of training that you do, it will ultimately allow you to deliverbetter service on a daily basis and even more importantly keep you and yourcrew safe. Be it company training,hands-on training, classroom training, pre-planning does not really matter,just go train. This means you andevery member of your crew, without exception or excuse. If you are reading this, we probablyhave a similar mindset when it comes to the importance of training. Does everyone on your crew have thesame mentality? Does the crew fromthe 2nd due station have a training mindset or train with you? Most importantly, does your departmenthave a training program to meet your needs?

Hopefully your department has a structured, comprehensive trainingprogram that ensures that you are training every day but unfortunately intoday’s fire service that is not always the case. Today’s fire service has taken on a tremendous amount ofother responsibilities and duties and training programs have to ensure that youand everyone in your department is prepared to meet these challenges. Often times, these other duties areallowed to take precedence over training and chief officers allow that tohappen without question and often by their bidding. I agree that ancillary duties have to be completed; apparatusmaintenance, inspections, facility cleaning, etc… but how many of these dutiesAND training can be accomplished with good planning and time management. Planning takes effort and thedevelopment of an Annual Training Plan can make a tremendous difference in timemanagement and the completion of training as everything is scheduled andaccounted for. The only realfactor to the disruption of training should be emergency calls.

An Annual Training Plan can account for everything that youwant to or need to train on throughout the year; CEU’s special operations,basic and advanced training, pre-planning, officer development…all it takes isplanning and development. This ishow programs are implemented and an established schedule allows companyofficers to plan their days and training that they want to accomplish withTHEIR crews. These is the key toany training program, training on all levels and buy in from members as eachrealizes their strengths and weaknesses within their firehouses and what theyneed to train on. You departmentmust have a plan but that is not enough, it’s never enough.

As a veteran of the fire service, training has always beenvery important and issues like this have a special place in my heart as we mustall overcome any and all of our individual or department challenges when itcomes to training. Do not thinkyou are alone in your frustration and stress as every department has the sameissues, they just have to be solved in a different way due to the uniquedynamics and culture of each of our departments.

Know what is expected of you when the bells go off. My oldest son is a college athlete andhas aspirations of joining the fire service for his career when he graduates. We were talking about trainingrequirements and what recruit training and company training was going to belike. I told him what somedepartments do for their recruits and what some of the training entailed. He was engaged in the conversation butalso expressed his trepidation about the world of fire departmenttraining. He stated he was notsure what to expect or how he would perform. This sums up the fire service and many individuals in thefire service, how are you going to perform when the bells go off? What are your strengths andweaknesses? Do you havetrepidation about any of the responses that you are going to make?

If you do, fix it by getting out and training. Make sure your department has acurrent, comprehensive training program that meets your needs and moreimportantly the needs of those around you because those weaknesses, fears,nervousness, trepidation will come find you and unfortunately when it does,someone’s life is going to depend on it. Train every day like someone’s life depends on because in reality, itdoes!

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